


Pidge's Dilemma

by Gorramshiny



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, It's a sad time in Galra land, general brainwashing, some violence, there will be warnings in each chapter if necessary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-22
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-08-10 08:27:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7837567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gorramshiny/pseuds/Gorramshiny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Matt Holt, brainwashed by the Galra and joining the Druids, runs into Pidge and Allura. Both of them get him thinking about what it means to be a part of his new life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Crush

**Author's Note:**

> There is no actual shipping or romance of any characters in this fic, just FYI. That's the only spoiler y'all get. ;)
> 
> The current plan is to post one chapter every week on Mondays.

 

Matt looked into the mirror and grinned. He finally loved what he saw, after so many years of insecurity. They had been right, he was better now. The lights on in his room were dim, but he could see as if full sunlight came in through the window. He had not seen proper sunlight in a long time, as the space patrol of his ship had continued for weeks. His newly yellow eyes sparkled. Night vision was one of the many perks the Druids had given him for his service, helping him in his quest to become better, to become more like the leaders he served. His skin and hair were toned purple, a color that flattered him, he thought. Much better than the sallow pinkish on normal humans. And his muscles were coming in. The working out and heavy lifting, combined with more druidic enhancement, meant he felt more able than he ever had.

Of course, he had been slow to accept these changes. He sighed at his old self, who went kicking and screaming into his new life. He appreciated Shiro for saving him in the arena. It was before he had been better, and Shiro had certainly preserved his life. Matt's respect was for a well-regarded enemy—respect, understanding, and above all, caution. But never fear. That too had been strained out of him. It still came back in fits and spurts sometimes, but he had so far been successful in quashing it. He thought of his father, too old and resistant to join in Matt's new life, and Matt pitied him for it.

The comm in the bunkhouse buzzed to life. “Recruit!” He had not had a name or designation chosen for him yet. After three Earth months of service, he was still 'recruit'. 'Matt' still stuck with him, and he secretly hoped it would make its way into his new moniker. “Report to Captain Tenfas immediately!”

* * *

“Sir!” Matt snapped a salute, hand over his chest, to the Captain. “You asked to see me.”

Tenfas had always reminded Matt of Earth eagles, particularly when he smiled as he did now. “Yes. At ease. I am here to report a change in your commanding officer.”

Matthew nodded, and waited. Speaking out of turn had gotten him more than one reprimand.

Tenfas continued, “You will, from now on, be reporting to Druid Lailee. She has said she felt quintessence in you that you yourself are generating. You have served me well up until now, and I have no doubt you will be of good use to Zarkon as our first male druid. You shall begin your training today, and report to her immediately. Good luck, Initiate. Vrepit sa.”

“Vrepit sa!” Matt saluted again, elation rushing in his chest and mind. A Druid Initiate!

* * *

When Matthew saluted to Druid Lailee, she laughed. He could not see her expression behind her white mask. “We do not salute here, boy. We are not soldiers as the Captain is. We report to Druid Haggar, and make no mistake of her place next to Zarkon. She does not truly report to him, though she often does trust his leadership. However,” her voice grew quiet and stern, “never tell soldiers of this. They will think it treason, and will cause no end of trouble for us. They already resent us as it is. Do you understand?”

“Yes, druid.”

“Good.” Matt thought he heard a smile in her voice, but it was impossible to tell.

He was handed a plain white mask, undecorated as Druid Lailee's was with eyes, and the plain brown robe of an initiate. When he raised it to his head, he found it held to his face without any attachments, and he could see through it as though it wasn't there.

“Good,” Lailee said. “Your training begins now.” She hurled a bolt of energy at him.

* * *

His training progressed in much the same way for the next eight months. The druids taught him the nuances of using one's quintessence as magic, and trained him in its applications both in and out of combat. It was all exhausting, and Matt fell into bed at the end of each day in the Druid quarters. The mask could come off, though Matt often forgot he was wearing it, and usually only removed it to shower or eat. He was again appreciating the effects of the training. His muscles hardened further, and his body grew more defined. His face grew lean and pronounced as the effects of magic pulled his body further into the shape he wanted—more like that of his trainers and masters.

* * *

He had heard the word “Voltron” whispered among the soldiers as a huge beast that could tear a ship apart like tissue paper, a mechanical creature with five pilots. He had hoped never to see it, so it would not destroy his new life, his better life. He hoped the Galra would succeed in their misson to conquer it and the universe. It would be better if he could bring his old race into the Galra fold. Perhaps they could be changed as he had been.

Perhaps he could give the gift to his sister, who was certainly back on Earth, probably going to school for computers. She had always understood computer code and machinery in a way he never had, though he was an engineer himself, before the Galra. Now, those skills were often unused, though the Druids' training was starting to utilize it again with the building of and experimentation on creatures. He had recently taken to helping dream up modifications for some of the soldiers, and found he rather liked the challenge of making flesh coincide with metal.

* * *

He had been sent to retrieve a soldier from a communications room for further testing. The soldier had agreed to an enhancement that would help them better interface with the ship's communications and security systems so he could more effectively monitor ship goings-on and keep ship security intact. Before Matt turned the corner, he sensed something was wrong. He reached out with his power and found the life energy of the soldier—he was unconscious—and of two others, neither of which were Galra.

He was about to turn the corner, when he heard a lilting, higher-pitched voice call, “Pidge, I need your help!” Pidge? The name sounded oddly familiar, though Matt couldn't place why. He glanced into the room to see a tall figure in Galran armor and a shorter one in a green and white suit of armor. The green and white intruder seemed familiar somehow, but Matt banished the thought from his mind. Just delusions that came with joining a new life. Everyone he knew was back on Earth, hundreds of light years away or more. He had stopped trying to keep track of the distance to his old home. The tall intruder removed their helmet.

The lady, Matt estimated, took up most of his attention. A knot formed in his stomach, and the only word he could find to describe her was beautiful: the paled purple tone of her skin, her lithe figure and flashing eyes, the perfectly coiled collection of lavender hair on her head, all of it was stunning. Matt found his mouth had suddenly dried.

“Look out!” the shorter intruder, Pidge, cried, and something came hurtling towards Matt out of their hand. Out of reflex, he teleported behind them and shoved with a blast of energy.

“A druid!” the taller one said, and rushed him. He brought up a shield of energy and tried to blast her with a bolt of magic. His aim was off, modified by a sudden unconscious desire to not hurt her, and the shot went wide, crashing into the wall next to the security control panel. As she struck with a jab to his right side, around the shield, Matt teleported away. Where had the green one gone?

He soon found out, as electricity coursed through his body. He screamed, and hit the ground. His eyes fluttered, and he tried to move to defend himself, but his limbs wouldn't work for him anymore. The two figured returned to the control panel, and he could do nothing but watch them.

“The Druid is down, Allura.” Pidge said. “We can get what we came for and get out of here.”

Her name was Allura. Knowing that brought a strange warmth to Matt. He tried shoving away the emotion. It had no use or right to be there.

Pidge returned to the control panel, and started working at it. A moment later, he thrust his arm in the air. “Yes! Got it!” The security klaxon started going off immediately.

“Pidge, we need to go!” Allura cried.

Pidge started to leave, when he turned back to look at Matt, though he couldn't know Matt was looking back. “Hold on...” he said.

“Pidge, now!” Allura cried, “Or we won't be able to escape.”

Pidge seemed to look at Matt for a long moment—it was impossible to really tell under the helmet. “Is...” he started to say. He broke off. “Okay, Shiro!” he cried, “I'm going!” He turned to leave, took a last look at Matt, then shook his head and sprinted out of the room.

Shiro. Which meant Pidge had been one of the Paladins of Voltron, and Matt had just let him get away, along with Allura who was...the memory had just come back to Matt. She was the princess of Altea, a conquered world, who led the resistance along with the Paladins of Voltron. A sworn enemy of the Galra. Matt couldn't help but want to talk to her and get to know her better, and he chastised himself for the thought.

* * *

His punishment by the druids was harsh, but understandable, given what he had done or, more accurately, failed to do: capture the Paladin of Voltron and Princess Allura. He was never told what they had taken from the ship. And yet, as he lay in his bunk at night, the image of Allura standing over the computer console came back to Matt's mind. He couldn't help, again, feeling like he wanted to get to know her more, to find out where she came from and why she resisted the Galra so completely. He turned over on his bed and watched the sleeping forms of the Druids. Sleep took a long time before it claimed him.


	2. Foundling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge tries to understand the information from the Galra ship, and Shiro finds out who attacked her.

Pidge pored over the information she got from the Galra ship, looking for clues and patterns. Shiro hoped that they could find out what world the Galra were planning to attack next and stop it, maybe help keep some planets free. She sighed, took off her glasses, and rubbed her eyes. The attacks seemed random, motivated only by outward expansion. It had been two weeks since getting the data but still nothing came of it. But at least the Paladins had over 10,000 years of Galra history at their fingertips. They couldn't know when it would prove useful. On a whim, Pidge started to look up the Druids to better know the enemy she might face when her stomach rumbled. She wiped at her eyes again and turned off the screen to go get food.

She ended up eating while watching the picture of her and Matt before he had taken off to go on the Kerberos mission. As it had every time before, her heart ached and she smiled at the memory.

“Any luck finding them?” Hunk said behind her.

She jumped, almost knocking the chair over. “Jeez, Hunk, let me know you're there next time!”

“Oh, sorry. My bad.” He smiled sheepishly, “I just came in to get a late night snack. You know what time it is, right?”

Pidge checked her clock, and was surprised it read the equivalent of 1am.

Hunk sat down next to her. “Can't stop thinking about them, huh?”

“No...” Pidge screwed her eyes shut, then exhaled, realizing holding back the emotion was futile. “I keep wondering where they are. If they're still captured by the Galra, if they ended up fighting for entertainment like Shiro did, or what else might have happened to them...” Saying it aloud meant realizing the possibilities, and tears began to fall. “I can't stand by and do nothing, Hunk, but what else can I do?!”

Hunk opened up his arms and Pidge nodded, then fell into his hug. Hunk hated seeing his friends hurt, and seeing Pidge like this burned, but there wasn't much he could do either. “You're doing everything you can,” he said. “We can't do anything until we know where they are.”

Pidge nodded, still sobbing a little. “I guess...wait. When we pulled the history data from the ship, we pulled the logs, too! Maybe they were there at one point! I'll check the prisoner records.”

“I'm going with you,” Hunk said, “In case you find something.” Pidge agreed.

The prisoner logs turned up nothing about earthlings or anyone matching a description of Matt or Pidge's father. Pidge grunted in frustration, and Hunk, with permission, set a hand on her shoulder. Pidge held it absently, glad for the human connection. The Paladins were like a family, and Pidge was glad to have them. Hunk bid Pidge goodnight and headed for his room at 3am. Sleep was quick, as tired as Pidge was from staring at screens and crying on Hunk.

* * *

The next morning, Pidge stumbled into the dining room, bleary-eyed. She sat down and spooned her food, moving it around on the plate before finally waking up enough to eat it. Shiro shuffled in, filling a plate with food. He finished it before speaking, and when he was done, he and Pidge were still the only ones in the room. “We need to talk,” he said.

Fear ricocheted through Pidge and she sat up straight. “Did I do something wrong?” She searched Shiro's face for anger, or disappointment. She saw sadness, and that scared her more. “Did something happen?” she said in a very small voice.

“My quarters or yours?” Shiro said. Pidge chose his and followed him.

She sat in the chair that was the main other feature of the room besides bed and sink. It always surprised Pidge how minimally Shiro lived without any apparent discomfort. She would hope on occasion that he would treat himself, or do something nice and fun for himself, but he never seemed to. She had no idea how to do it, and wouldn't want to force it on him.

Shiro sat on his bed and stared at the floor.

“What's wrong?” Pidge said.

Shiro looked up. “I...” He cut himself off and looked back at the floor.

“Shiro?” Pidge's voice cracked. She was advancing from fear to terror.

He stared at the floor as he spoke. “I looked through the personnel records for the ship we were on. I wanted to find out if I knew anyone, if I could find out any clues to what happened while I was gone.” He got up and pressed a panel in the wall. A screen flickered to life in the air, showing a list of names. One name flashed, then the computer brought up a record of one person. Pidge stared in horror, not wanting to believe what they saw, but knowing Shiro would never lie to them about this.

**Name: Maethus**

**Rank: Initiate**

**Time on board: 6 months**

**Race: Sol 3 Native/Galra Hybrid**

It was followed by a short description of the skills of “Maethus”. The picture was clearly Matt, but he was different, and Pidge squirmed with grief and rage at what the Galra had done to her brother.

“Wait, scroll down,” Pidge said. Below the picture of Matt was a picture of a figure in druid robes, wearing a white mask. The mask had a single curlicue of black coming off what would be the left eye. Pidge's stomach dropped out, and they started shaking. Going to the image, they traced the black line on the mask. “Shiro,” Pidge continued, “You know how I said we fought a Druid on the ship, that I incapacitated them?”

“Yes.”

“Something was strange about that Druid. Now...I know why I wanted to see them...him.” The picture of Matt as he was now still sat hovering in the air above the picture of the mask, and Pidge shivered when she looked at it. She turned away from the screen and pulled out the old picture of Matt. As she stared at it, it swam in her vision, tears blocking out clarity. She dropped to the floor, no longer wanting to take the energy to hold herself up. A yelled sob burst from her lungs, and everything in her shook with the grief. Not only had their brother turned into...whatever he was now. She had attacked him. She had thought about killing him if necessary. Killing Galra by virtue of self defense was one thing, though Pidge had had many a sleepless night because of it. Killing her brother? There were more tears. Hands started to encircle her and she leaned into Shiro, though she found a very different presence there.

Pidge opened her eyes to a blanket of lavender hair, and the dark skin and rose smell of Allura. Allura held them for a long while. “How did you get here?” Pidge asked.

“I heard the scream,” she said. “I wanted to know what went wrong. I am so so sorry to hear of what happened.”

A short silence held in the air before Pidge broke it. “What do I do, Allura? What am I supposed to do?”

“What do you want to do?”

Pidge's words came immediately. “I want him back.”

Shiro came up to Pidge and smiled, though Pidge was still looking into Allura's hair. “Then we'll get him back,” Shiro said.

Pidge looked up at him, and her eyes blazed with determination.


	3. The Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt - now Maethus - furthers his training.

Maethus was training his teleportation control. He and Druid Lailee were walking a room in a circuitous path, discussing biomechanics and its applications. Every so often, Lailee would surprise him with an attack, and he was to teleport to a predetermined spot in the room. He was getting slowly better, but more often than not he would teleport to where the spot would be if he had been in the last place he teleported from.

Once, when he did this, Lailee shot bolt after bolt at him, shouting, “Do it right!” with each one. He kept teleporting all over the room, but never to the right spot. After ten or twelve bolts in a row, he finally got it right. “Good!” crowed Lailee, and she shot another bolt at him. He teleported again, this time right next to her, and tried to put a fist into her stomach. She vanished into the air, reappearing just enough to one side that Maethus' fist went through empty air.

“Very good,” she said. Maethus heard actual approval in her voice and smiled behind his mask. He had noticed himself improving with his magical abilities. While he had been a scientist before, the bioengineering and other creation-based pursuits came more slowly to him than his grasp of magic. He asked Lailee about it.

“Creation is fueled by magic, yes, but it is also fueled by the mind. You have to have the intellect to grasp what is going on. You do, but it comes more slowly to you, as you were only introduced to this technology eight months ago at the most. Magic feeds off emotion and belief. You already believe that your magic will work, and you have plenty of emotion to feed it. You are only now limited by your skill and your own quintessence, and you have not reached any real limits of either. There will come a time when improving your magic will be frustrating, but you are adapting well enough to it as a beginner that you have not gotten there. When you do, you will—”

She shot another blast at Matthew and he blinked out of the space and landed with one foot on the marked spot. Lailee turned towards him. “Better. Back.” He blinked next to her. “As I was saying, when you do, you will know.”

He stayed silent. There was a time when his teachers wanted to hear an acknowledgment. Lailee knew he heard her, and wanted no such thing. 'A waste of air,' she had said, and told him to save it for his questions.

He had one know. “Druid, when I am done training today may I—” he cut himself off as another blast jumped towards him. His reflexes barely got out of him in time, and he had felt the crackle of it. He looked down and felt a surge of triumph. He was standing squarely in the spot on the floor. When Lailee looked over, he jumped back.

“It could have been luck,” she remarked drily. He had to concede her point, but didn't say as much. It would serve him better to simply prove her wrong.

He didn't get the chance. As he started to begin his sentence again, a wave of lightheadedness hit him and he stumbled. He pushed himself to his feet, and saw Lailee holding out a canteen of water. He took it and drained it in one go. She flickered out of existence for a few moments, then reappeared, the canteen full. He nearly drained it again, and let out a huge exhale after the last gulp of water. He was breathing hard, he realized. How long had that been happening?

“Your transformation has helped your endurance,” Lailee said. Maethus couldn't mistake the sharp anger in her voice. “It has made you stronger, more durable, more energetic. You focus on your training well, but you do not know your limits. What you are feeling now? You have overreached yourself, nevermind your sloppy teleportation, leaving too much of your body's water behind you. **Know your limits.** And know them well. If you are in a fight, you need to automatically know when you are reaching them, even if the adrenaline tells you you can keep going. I refuse to lose you, the most promising initiate I have seen in many many years, to your own folly. Do you understand me!”

Maethus nodded automatically.

“Good. Get yourself some food. We shall return to your lessons in an hour. Do not use magic for the remainder of the day. Not even the smallest amount, unless I directly tell you to. Understood?”

“Yes, Druid.”

“Good.” Lailee vanished from the practice room.

 

That afternoon—Maethus hadn't been near a planet in months but still thought of days in mornings, afternoons, and evenings—Maethus was poring over a bioengineering diagram with Lailee, when she looked up at him. “Oh!” she said. “You're getting your first eye!”

Maethus was confused for a moment, until he remembered his mask. He unfocused his vision, which allowed him to see the mask as translucent. There was a line of light blue about a half-fingerwidth wide down the center of it, and Maethus grinned. His eyes, the marks of knowledge! It would be a long time before it fully opened, but that it had even shown up on his mask at all was a triumph.

Out of the corner of his vision, he saw a dark crackle, and Lailee crowed, “Move!”

Maethus unthinkingly vanished from the room. When he looked down, he saw he was standing on the orange spot in the training room he had been trying to land on earlier in the day. He sat down hard, lightheaded. Lailee blinked into the room a moment later, holding a canteen. “Good,” she said, as she handed it to him. He drained it. “Still sloppy. You'll need to work on that.”

Maethus nodded. He and Lailee walked back to the diagram room—she said it would be too much for him to keep teleporting, and promised it to be the last attack of the day. They returned to studying the diagram of the prosthetic arm. He thought he recognized it from somewhere. He traced the line of the arm, and asked, “Is this the arm you gave to Shiro?”

“It is, child,” Lailee said. “You did well to recognize it. We will almost certainly be fighting the Paladins again before much longer, and you need to familiarize yourself with the weapons they will be wielding.”

Maethus stared at the diagram even harder, trying to commit it to memory. He pointed to a spot at the underside of the wrist. It was a black line, its label scratched out. “What is that?”

“We implanted him with a control chip. He found it, and tore it out. We removed the label to ensure nobody thought it was still there.” Lailee sounded bitter.

“It would have been useful,” Maethus said. Some part of him thought it made Shiro a more worthy opponent, that he couldn't be controlled.

“That it would, Initiate.”

Thinking about Shiro led Maethus to think about the other Paladins, which led him to thinking about Allura. “Do we have records on the Altean princess?” he asked. “Or the paladins,” he added hastily.

“We do have an extensive file on Princess Allura, we do not have much on the Paladins. Unfortunately, even with the security footage from their attacks, we have not been able to gather much on them.”

“May I see what we have? I would like to know more about our enemies.”

“I will have the information sent to you,” Lailee said, and her next words were biting, “For now, focus on your studies.”

Maethus returned to the diagram.

 

When he pulled up the file on Allura later that night, Maethus' breath caught in his throat. Somehow, her lavender hair accented her true, darker skin even more perfectly than it had the purple of her shape-shifted form. He again felt the pull to know her better, and bitterly shoved the thought away. She was an enemy of the Galra, and she had been alive...he felt his mouth drop open as bitterness turned to wonderment.

He marveled at what she might have seen, what she might know about the universe. The scientist still in him wondered what new perspective on galactic history she might be able to offer. But he also knew she was, first and foremost, the enemy, and a dangerous one. He would need to be on his guard around soldiers who might be her in disguise. Lailee had mentioned there was a way to use his energy to feel out the life of others. It might help him find her again, should the need arise. It was good to know when there might be an enemy in one's midst. Of course.

 


	4. The Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "We'll get him back"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So folks are aware, I've started an MFA in Creative Writing, so in a couple weeks when I run out of stuff I already have prepped, updates may come a little more sporadically because other writing projects have to come first. I hope to keep to the current schedule though.

As Lance cleared the dinner table of plates, the entry for Matt in the Galra crew logs floated between the Paladins and Allura. Coran was taking care of some maintenance.

“I hate to be the one to say this,” Hunk said, “But what if he's gone?”

“He's right there!” Lance said. “We know it's him, and he wouldn't have left the ship!”

Keith growled, “That's not what he meant. Why can't you ever take anything seriously?”

Lance glanced at Keith, “Oh, yeah, sure. Because he's a Galra mind slave now.” Lance cocked his head to one side and suck his arms out like a zombie, “I will do whatever you want, Zarkon.”

“Lance, enough!” snapped Shiro. “You don't have to come.”

Lance took a step away from Shiro, then shrugged. “Whatever. I'll just stay here, hold down the fort. Any of those Galra guys come in I'll—” he snapped into a fighting stance like he was holding his gun. He made blaster noises.

Pidge stewed in her seat, anger rising. Why couldn't he understand how it felt?

“Lance,” Keith said. His voice was sad, and it got both Lance and Pidge to look up. Keith looked at Pidge, and Lance followed his gaze. Pidge dropped her head. She didn't want to be looked at.

“We'll get him back,” Shiro said. His voice was calm and low, but enough to be heard in the room.

“Yeah, we'll get him back,” echoed Keith. “After all...” he tried to crack a smile but Pidge saw the sadness behind it and heard it in his voice. “what is family for?”

A memory of her blood family sitting around the table before her father and Matt left came to Pidge and she smiled. She looked at the family she had now and she was filled with gratitude for their support.

“We have the three of us,” Shiro said, looking at Pidge and Allura, “we need one more person to go with us.”

“I'll go,” Keith said instantly.

Hunk nodded. “I couldn't hurt him if we needed to,” he said.

“It's fine,” Pidge said. It hurt like a rock in the pit of her stomach to hear, but... “we might have to. Even if he does recognize me there's no proof he wouldn't hurt me. We don't know what the Galra have done to him.”

Shiro set a hand on Pidge's bare arm. She stiffened for a moment. The metal was cold, but she wrapped her fingers around it anyway.

“So,” Keith said, “What's the plan? Fake capture again?”

Allura shook her head, and her hair bobbed, “It won't work twice so soon on the same ship. We'll need to sneak in.”

“I don't know where the druid quarters are and we didn't get ship layouts in the files,” Shiro muttered.

“I'll get them once we get aboard,” Pidge said.

Keith laced his fingers together. “After that?”

“We'll figure it out.” Shiro frowned. “No plan survives first contact. Hunk, Lance, you two and Coran mind the wormhole that will get the green lion close to the ship. If we fly the castle in, they'll see us.”

“What about the wormhole?” Hunk said. He had grabbed one of the clean plates and added a little food to it, then started eating again. His next words were around a mouthful. “Won't they see that?”

Pidge looked at Hunk and grinned. Shiro could've sworn her glasses glinted in the light. “In eight days, the ship is passing by a sun. They need to land on a planet to refuel, and the wormhole emits a similar radiation spectrum to the sun.”

Hunk finished the thought, “So it'll just look like a solar flare or extra emissions!”

“Exactly!” Pidge kept grinning, but it slipped a little. “Assuming they don't look too closely at the sensors.”

“It's the best chance we have,” Shiro said. “Let's use it.”

“And,” Allura chimed in, “if we get captured, it's headed into deep space next, so you can come pick us up in the castle.”

“We could go where it's going next,” Hunk said. “That way we can already be there if we need to.”

Shiro nodded. “Good idea. For now, let's get some rest, team. We'll need it.”

The room started to empty. Hunk and Allura headed to adjust the navigation. Lance and Keith headed to their rooms. “I'm gonna go work on the hack program,” Pidge said to Shiro, “I won't be able to sleep anytime soon”

Shiro smiled at her, “If you need it, Allura makes a great sleep tea. It's helped me when I can't sleep, and it doesn't have drugs or anything like that in it.”

Pidge looked at Shiro, concerned, but he waved it off.

“I'll be okay,” he said. “I went through a lot this past year. Take care of yourself.” He extended his flesh-and-blood hand to hold Pidge on the shoulder.

She took his hand in hers instead. “You too, Shiro,” she said, looking him in the eyes, before letting go and heading to her room.

 


	5. The Test

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maethus starts on new training and is tested by Lailee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning for physical restraint out of anger and some seriously invasive mind magic (though in this case consented to).

“Initiate!” Druid Lailee crowed, clapping her hands together, “It is time for your first test!”

Maethus and Lailee stood in the practice arena. The orange dot had been wiped away from the floor. Laille warped to the side of Maethus and the new pointed and furred ears atop his head—a gift for his progress in training—swiveled slightly to hear her better.

“Your test is to fight me.”

Maethus' fur prickled. Lailee continued, “You may have to fight people you once trusted. There is sometimes sedition in our ranks, for those foolish enough to think they know a better path. And I promise you, you cannot lay a scratch on me with your current skill and power. Now...” she blinked in front of him again. He still couldn't tell what she might be feeling with the mask on. That was the point of the masks.

Energy crackled in her hands and she threw it at him. Without thinking, he vacated the space he was in a moment before it struck and appeared a foot to the left. Lailee launched bolt after bolt and each time, Maethus disappeared and reappeared. As he flickered back into existence, a bolt crashed into him and he flew across the ring.

“Think!” Lailee yelled after him. “Your instincts to defend cannot help you in you never attack. Defend often, get hit often! When you fought the paladin you showed no mercy. Show me the same! This is a test and you are failing!”

Maethus' blood burned. There was no way he could lay a scratch on her? He would prove that wrong. He warped from his laying position to standing behind Lailee, throwing a bolt at her. She took two steps to the side, and it sailed past her.

“Never use power if you do not have to!” she barked, not even looking at him. She sent a bolt towards Maethus and he watched its trajectory. He stood right where he was and it sailed past him. He smiled.

“Good!” She did it again, but this time the bolt curved, and Maethus only vanished at the last possible moment. His fur stood on end from the energy.

He jumped right next to Lailee and tried to deliver a strike with a hand—it passed through empty air. She had vanished before he could get halfway through the motion. He felt her appear behind him from the crackle-pop of a teleport exit and vanished himself.

The two faced each other from across the room and Maethus took a moment to compose a strategy before running forward. His Druid robe fluttered as he ran. The two traded blasts and dodges, and Maethus threw a bolt only to have Lailee sidestep it. He grinned, and focused on it, pulling it back towards him while splitting it. He twisted the energy so it crackled and Lailee stepped aside again, straight into the path of one of the two bolts. Her own hands cracked with energy and Maethus ran at her, hoping to distract Lailee from the bolt that had almost reached her. It worked. She stumbled forward. Maethus pulled the energy from the second bolt and grinned.

“Very good, Initiate,” Lailee said. “You passed. Should you wish, you may choose your next area of new study. This does not mean other studies will cease, but that something may be added.”

Maethus considered for a moment, dwelling on the possibilities. What would be most useful? What would he want to be able to do? Understand his enemies. Know why they fought the Galra and perhaps convince them to join the cause. He thought of Allura again and shivered with disgust at the emotions that came up. “There is a way to interrogate and read the thoughts of prisoners without hurting them, correct?”

“Ahhhh,” Lailee said. “Interrogation by Druids does leave its own scars, but it is not torture as Galran soldiers might do. And I am one of the best of the Druids. You would have a good teacher.” Was that pride in her voice? “Is that what you wish to learn?”

“Yes,” Maethus said. Some part of him wanted Lailee to find his thoughts about Allura and banish them from his head.

It occurred to Maethus as he cleaned himself before bed that the power behind his bolt should have done more to Lailee than make her stumble forward. She would have had to have taken some of the energy out of the bolt or redirected it somehow, which meant she let him hit her. He sighed as he ran a comb through the fur starting to sprout on his collarbone and neck. Keeping it clean was essential to good hygiene, and part of him missed the days where the only hair he needed to worry about was on the top of his head.

<hr>

Training in interrogation began the next day a few hours before dinner. Lailee had ordered him to eat a light lunch. “This training, especially to those new to it, is not best done on a full stomach,” she had said.

Lailee began by delving into his own thoughts. She did not wear her mask, and Maethus was not wearing his, by her order. “We do better in this without the masks' interference. Seeing eye to eye with the target helps immensely. In addition, you must know how this feels to someone who does not have training. That way, you can better get into their minds. Think of whatever you can to resist me.”

Maethus tried shielding himself by imagining putting up a metal wall between himself and Lailee. He felt Lailee's presence come at the wall and, without much ceremony, puncture it in a hundred different places. He replaced the wall with a thicker one, but this was punctured even faster, and Lailee dove into his mind, sifting through everything he could and couldn't think about. The sensation ripped through him, and when Lailee retreated, his whole body shook. Most of his muscles trembled, and he staggered out of the chair he was sitting in. He heaved into the trash receptacle in the wall a few times, though many of them were dry. When he was able to catch his breath, he wiped around his mouth with a bit of cloth.

As he was finally able to return to his chair, Lailee nodded, and she smiled. He shakily nodded back. “So you are aware,” she said, and her voice had a kind tone, “that is the roughest this will ever be. I was purposefully hard on you. I knew you would be able to take it without it destroying you, because on some level you wanted to let me in. But you need to understand what this does to the species you are interrogating. It is not for everyone, but its usefulness cannot be overstated. Do you still wish to continue?”

Maethus nodded. “Yes, I do.” His throat still burned from the bile. “If I may ask, what did you see?”

Lailee smirked, “I saw you before the Galra. Your joining us has done you well.”

“It has. I am much better for it.”

“And much happier.”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

 

Much of the remaining time until dinner was spent on theoretical discussions: how interrogation worked, how to use one's quintessence to link to another living being's, the best way to defend from and instigate an interrogation attempt, how different species' minds were laid out, how to go looking in someone's mind for the information they wanted to keep hidden, and so on. Neither Lailee nor Maethus so much as suggested another attempt at more hands-on training.

Interrogation training always took place at the same time, and Maethus often had a large dinner afterwards to make up for it. For a few days, it was just theoretical information, but it quickly progressed into back-and-forth attempts at reaching into each others' minds. Lailee had Maethus reach in to find a number in her head.

It started off clearly visible, but quickly became harder to find. There were mazes and puzzles and tricks waiting to fool him. “A knowledgeable opponent will know how to stop us, and may throw any number of things in our way,” Lailee said. “When I am truly trying, it will take you a very long time of training before you can breach even the smallest corners of my mind, but doing so will make you incredibly adept at breaching the minds of others.”

Some part of Maethus worried about the violation that would come to his targets when he interrogated prisoners, but he dismissed the thought. It needed to be done and besides, there were ways to be gentle.

Once, when Lailee was in Maethus' mind, he offered her his thoughts about the Altean princess and wanting to know her better. Lailee immediately retreated from his mind and burst into loud laughter. It was a grating, barking sound. Partway through one of her laughs, Maethus suddenly found himself flying through the air. He was shoved up against a wall by Lailee's magic, and she was in his face. Her own features were contorted with disgust. Her breath was hot and sour, and made his fur prickle.

Lailee snarled, “That you offered those thoughts to me is your only salvation right now, Initiate. Otherwise, they might be considered treasonous. While your wish to know our enemy might be admirable, make no mistake. Allura is a ruthless foe, and she would rather see us all destroyed. She and her Paladins have killed countless numbers of us. They have no regard for our lives. You would do better to forget your wondering and wishful thinking. Should you wish, I can extract the thought from you entirely, though it will leave a scar, even with my skill.”

Maethus nodded. “Please take it away. I have hoped for it to be gone since the moment it began.”

“Good. It will be done. We are done with training for the day.”

Lailee vanished and Maethus dropped the foot to the ground. His legs gave out from ebbing fear, though his heart was still racing.

When he awoke the next morning, he considered the Altean princess, but the only thing there was a clinical detachment. She was the enemy. She would kill him if she got the chance.

 


	6. Seeking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plan goes into motion.

 

Pidge wiped a sheen of sweat from her forehead then steadied her hands on the controls of the Green Lion. Glancing across Allura—shape-changed and outfitted as a Galra troop—and Keith, her eyes fell on Shiro. He gave a tiny nod, and she gripped the controls, unable to now what mix of emotions she was feeling. Fear, certainly. Joy? Anger? It was all too mixed up to tell. She took in and let out a large breath.

“Let's go,” she said, louder than she needed to for the size of the cockpit.

“Okay!” Coran's voice issued from the comm speaker. “Remember, once you go through you need to maintain radio silence with us until you're done. Or unless the Galra capture all of you and will string you up like sizor snakes! Then there's not much we can do anyway! So good luck!” He was quiet for a moment, then said in a much quieter voice, “Good luck princess.”

“You'll see,” Keith said. “We'll be back before you've even had time for dinner.” Pidge saw Allura smiled at Keith in the cockpit screen's reflection.

“Too late,” Hunk's voice came through.

“Hunk! Not near the equipment!” Lance's panicked shout caused Pidge to wince with the sudden noise.

Corans' voice cut in. “Anyways, wormhole activating in 10, 9, 8...”

As Coran kept counting, Pidge killed the cockpit lights and pushed the Green Lion forward. It floated through void. As Coran reached zero, a wormhole opened a handful of yards in front of the Lion. Pidge smiled. The timing was perfect. She gunned the thrusters and the Lion leapt through the wormhole in a blink. The unsettling pull of a jump through space-time lasted a short moment.

Pidge cried in pain and clamped her eyes shut as the lion exited the wormhole. The bright light of the sun had seared her eyes. She felt Allura's hands on hers, controlling the lion for a moment. Pidge felt the lion rumble with concern and confusion for a moment until Allura removed her hands.

“Open your eyes?” Allura said in a kind voice.

Pidge tried, ad her vision was totally blocked by tears. She felt a light mist on her face and her eyes felt like they were on fire. She screamed. “What did you do?!” she yelled as she covered and closed her eyes again.

Shiro and Lance both screamed for a long moment and the sound grated against Pidge's ears. She felt tears running down her cheeks from the pain. Trying to open her eyes again, she found she could see and her eyes didn't tear as badly as they had. She bit back a whimper of pain.

“It's a healing spray,” Allura said. How was she still smiling? “It helps the damaged tissue knit together, designed for these sorts of injuries. It _was_ designed for Alteans, so I wasn't sure if it would work.”

“You weren't sure?” cried Pidge.

“Better than being blind,” Keith said. He wiped tears from his own eyes.

“How do we navigate if we can't look at the sun?” Pidge muttered.

“The lion's sensors needed a moment to adjust. You can look at it now.” Allura said.

Pidge slowly turned the lion's head and found the sun's brightness considerably diminished. She breathed a sigh of relief.

“I can still feel it,” Keith growled, rubbing at his eyes.

“It could take some time to fully heal,” Allura said.

“Let's go. We don't have much time.” Shiro put a hand on Pidge's shoulder, and she nodded.

The trip to the ship was easy enough with the Green Lion's cloaking, which Pidge had improved for this mission. She tethered the lion to the Galra ship in one of the sensors' few dead spots just after the docking scans completed and refueling began. They would have the most time possible; the window was a few hours wide with the repairs that needed to be done.

One hole in the hull later, the group was inside. Pidge found a console and input her hack, tapping away at keys while the rest kept watch.

After a few minutes of muttering and furious typing, Pidge threw a fist in the air. “Got it!” she said, and Allura came over. Pidge almost zapped her with her bayard, remembering at the last moment. Who was under the armor. “Don't sneak up on me like that!” Pidge hissed. Allura looked to the other two, who shrugged. Pidge blushed. She had been so focused on the console she had been oblivious.

Shiro helped them dodge patrols on their way to the Druid quarters. They slipped into a large round room with some kind of panel on the wall to avoid a passing pair of troops. The four were about to continue when the door beeped and clicked. Keith tried to pull open the door, and grunted. It stayed closed. Pidge was looking around for other ways out, so she saw the figure teleport into the middle of the room. They wore a Druid's robe, and their mask had two features: a black curlique at the left side and a silver line partway down the center.

“Pidge...” Allura said. Pidge glanced over to see she had pulled out a small blaster pistol. Keith had his bayard out and activated, and Shiro had his hands up.

“Stand down, all of you,” Pidge said. Her voice was sharp. She was terrified, but kept steel in her words.

The group hesitated a moment, then complied. Pidge looked back to the Druid, whose hands crackled with dark energy.

“Matt?” Pidge called. Even from across the room she could tell he had frozen in place, though the lightning still cracked in his hands. She pulled off her helmet. “It's me,” she said. “It's Katie.”

 


	7. Finding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The sibilings find each other, though not quite how each hoped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for this taking slightly longer than normal. Life has been hectic, and updates from here on out will likely be more sporadic, but I don't have an intention of stopping quite yet. There are, I think, a couple more things to explore.

Maethus froze when he heard his old name. How could the green paladin know it? When they— **she—** pulled off her helmet, Maethus' mind balked. She wasn't facing the camera. The energy in his hands wavered, and he focused on it, sending it arcing past her into the camera lens.

“Wait!” he shouted, raising his empty hands into the air. “Don't,” he breathed. Everyone had weapons trained on him except Katie, who had her hands up, palms facing outward. “I don't know why...” He took a moment to pull off his mask and it clattered to the floor. “I didn't want the Druids to see her.” The idiocy of his action caught up with him. Punishment and interrogation were sure to follow. He tried to ignore that.

“Katie, what are you doing here?” He could see her staring at him. Her mouth was open and something that looked like...disgust was on her face? It was the same look she gave cooked vegetables. Something that had been perfectly good, soured for no reason.

“I could ask you the same question, Matt,” she said. “What did they do to you?” Here he was, in the flesh. Nothing, not even seeing his picture on a screen prepared her for it.

He smiled. Katie internally cringed. _He actually smiled? Was that..._ joy _on his face?_

“They made me better,” Matt said.

“What kind of universe do you live in?” Keith said. “How could the Galra make anything better.”

“You don't know what you're talking about.” Matt glared at him. “I was enough for space flight, sure, but I wasn't strong before. I wasn't  _good_ before.” He fixed his eyes back on Katie. “They gave me what I wanted. I'm just sorry dad was too weak to join us. They told me what happened to him, you know. They said he died in the work camps.”

Fear and rage crawled out of a hole in the bottom of Katie's gut, filling her up. Would Matt have a reason to lie? If he was like this, had the Galra completely taken him over? How could he feel no remorse? Was he being lied to? Was  _he_ lying? Springing forward, Katie pulled her bayard and shot it at Matt. Whatever he was now, it didn't seem like there was anything of the Matt she knew in him.

The weapon was knocked aside, and a tendril of power wrapped around her, holding her in the air. Laughing, Matt pulled up another bolt of power and held it up to ward off the other paladins and Allura, who had all drawn their weapons again.

He hadn't wanted this. Was Katie truly his enemy? Maybe she had been caught up by Allura, but there must be a way for her to see what Matt had chosen. It was the right choice to make. She was the green paladin of Voltron. He had sworn to end them. He had her in his grasp and yet it wasn't the weapons trained on him that prevented him from killing her. He could easily do that and teleport before any blast got even close to him. And it looked like the paladins, at least, had only melee weapons. But he couldn't.

“Sis, please,” he said. “Let me explain?”

“You better have a REALLY good reason!” Katie yelled. She still wasn't quite thinking clearly. Whatever monster had taken him over, she would get him back.

“I do. I promise.”

“Can you at least put me on the ground? You know I hate it when you hold me up and spin me around.” Maybe appealing to his past self would help.

All the energy vanished, and Katie barely got her hands and feet under her before hitting the ground. She crouched for a moment, then brushed herself off and stood. “Matt...” she said.

“My name is Maethus.” He had corrected her without thinking about it.

Katie was in shock for a moment, then went with it. Body changes and a new name? She couldn't be one to argue the point, especially with what Matt had seen her through about a year or so before he left. “Maethus,” she said softly, “Why?”

“They offered me a choice.” Matt started to pace the floor and gesture with his arms. Katie had to smile. Some things were still the same. “Either I stay in the arena or they use me in a military capacity. I agreed to the military. How else was I supposed to survive? But then, I started to see what they meant about power. It's not just about conquering, Katie, it's about helping! We're bringing order to the galaxy, lifting up civilizations like ours that don't have space flight yet, bringing everyone together! And besides, I can't say I'm too unhappy with how I turned out either. The Druids fused some Galra DNA with mine. That's how I got like this. The ears, and the night vision? It's like I'm Butters!”

Katie's heart panged at the reference to their old cat. How was she getting on, with only their mother to take care of her? How was their mother? Though it made a certain amount of sad sense. Matt had always asked their father for some of the lower-tech night-vision glasses for the holidays, but kept getting sweaters. Dad said he couldn't get any off the base, no matter how hard he or Matt tried.

“You have a very strange sense of order,” Allura said. “You call conquering planets and enslaving people 'bringing order'? You were almost put in an arena and killed for entertainment! Is that the kind of world you want to bring to Earth? To your mother?”

Matt's eyes flared. “Don't dare to bring Mom into this! I wanted to make our family better. The Druids promised me I'd be able to help all of us be better once Zarkon gets to Sol 3.”

“Zarkon has an unfortunate tendency of lying,” Shiro said sadly. “He tends to make promises he won't keep.”

“I fought Zarkon ten thousand years ago and he was the same way,” Allura added. “He won't change.”

Ten thousand years. Maethus' memory jumped back to a moment he had sitting on his bed and wondering about everything Allura had seen. He looked to her again and something warm bubbled in him that he thought Lailee had stamped out. He pushed it down with a shudder of disgust.

“Do you want to see her again?” Katie said.

“What?”

“Do you want to see mom again? We can go back, you know.” Katie's heart leapt at the thought, though soured when she thought of mom seeing her son like this. And it was an empty, hopeful promise. None of them had been back since they left, and Sol 3 was a long way from the Galra front. “How many years do you think it will take for Zarkon to get out to home? Longer than mom has left to live? We can go back. We can see her.” Katie couldn't help but be happy just a little. If dad really was gone, then the family would at least all be together again.

Maethus considered for a moment, then said, “I'll be right back.” He vanished.

The paladins looked at each other. Was he going to get reinforcements? They grouped together, back to back, weapons at the ready. Katie's bayard trembled with her hand. When Matt reappeared after a few minutes, he was alone, and had his hands in the air and open. He was surrendering. “I'm going with you,” he said. “My Druid trainer said I could. I told her I could use it as an excuse to spy for Zarkon.” His eyes fell on Katie. “I couldn't hurt you, and I know Zarkon would just execute you if given a chance. This was the only way I could come back without anyone to apprehend you.”

“He could be lying,” said Keith.

“I know,” Katie growled. He was normally a terrible liar, and she was usually good at spotting them. But that had been before his face had changed.

“How do you know you won't actually betray us?” Allura said.

Maethus' eyes widened in shock, then he looked down at the floor. “I just...I just want to go home.” he said.  _And talk to my sister again. And know Allura a little better._ He squashed down the last thought, knowing it was a bad one, but couldn't bring himself to do the same to thoughts of his little sister.

As he climbed into the Green Lion with Katie, his heart quickened. Here he was, with a Lion of Voltron! He glanced around as Katie slid into the cockpit. Green was grumbling about having a Galra along, and she did her best to assuage him. As Maethus settled into sitting on the floor, he thought over Lailee's words to him when he left: “I look forward to continuing your training. Should this go well, I may be able to let you see your father.” Captain Tenfas had said his father was dead. If he had lied about that, what else had he lied about? Or was it Lailee who was lying?

 


	8. Getting Settled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maethus comes aboard the castle and starts to get settled, and the sibilings contemplate going home for a visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While this is by no means an ending to this story, I have to end the work here. I can't seem to get up the drive to keep working on it, so I'm abandoning it. If someone else wants to pick it up, be my guest, just please reference this.

“Your room is going to be here, unless you want something different.” The door slid shut behind the two of them and they stood in a standard single room: bed, wash basin, desk with computer terminal, locker, small closet.

“Are you kidding? Do you know how long I've been dreaming about a room to myself?” He fiddled with the edge of the light blue robe Allura had given him to change out of his Druid ones. According to Allura, it made Shiro nervous.

Katie chuckled. “I'll show you around the rest of the castle.”

They saw the kitchens, the bridge, Katie's quarters, the training room. At the last one, Matthew—Maethus— asked to be left alone for a little while to meditate. Katie stepped away from the door and keyed a viewscreen to show space. She wondered where Earth was in all the blackness, or if she was even looking in the right direction, and was pulled out of her thoughts by footfalls coming down the hallway.

“What do you want to do now?” Shiro asked.

“I don't know.” She stared out at the blackness of space through a viewscreen. “We always got along but now...He's never been this calm before. Always up and running around, doing things. Never just sitting.” She toggled the viewscreen for a moment and it showed the training room. Maethus sat in the middle of it. After a moment, she switched it back to starry darkness. “Mom did try to get us to calm down.”

“Have you tried talking to him?”

“I'm scared to.”

“Do you want me there to help?”

“No, he'd just clam up. I'll...I'll go.”

When Katie entered the training room, Maethus looked up. She tried her hardest not to wince when his ears twitched forward. “So...Maethus, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Pronouns still the same?” It got a smile out of him, and she relaxed.

“Yeah.”

“You settling in okay?”

The response took a moment longer. “Everyone has been so kind to me. Well, except the red one.”

“Keith?” He had never been good at names.

“Yeah. He openly doesn't trust me. The big yellow one. Hunk? He's been nervous. But Shiro...” He looked away a moment, scratching at the metal floor with a sharp fingernail. “how's he taking all this?”

“What do you mean?”

Maethus looked up, and Katie had to work to not turn away from his shining yellow eyes. “If I told you that, um” he looked away for the briefest moment and licked his lips. “that I'd seen dad while I was gone...”

It hurt, but Katie saw what he meant. “You're still a terrible liar....Can I still call you Matt?”

“...that'd be nice.” He smiled again. “But I promise you I'm not a spy. I just wanted to see you again. Could you tell Shiro that you trust me?”

Katie punched him in the arm. “I already did.” Laughter bubbled out of her then. It felt so much like old times.

He laughed too. It was different, sharper, more barking, but it was still mostly the same.

Katie got up and stretched. “Want to go a round?” she said, lifting her bayard out of its cradle.

“You'd lose,” Maethus said, getting up and grinning, showing sharp teeth.

“Try me.” Katie called up a terminal and set it for sparring. The floor swelled under her feet, softening. She picked up her bayard into a defensive stance and activated it.

Maethus called up balls of white energy and shut his eyes. As they hovered in his hands, he took slow breaths in and out, and the intensity of the light dropped. When they were no brighter than candles, he opened his eyes again and they winked out. “First to three outs loses.”

The fight ran back and forth, and more than once, Katie could have sworn she had him when he teleported at the last moment, throwing a ball of energy at her as he left. The orbs didn't hurt, really, but they stung enough to push her back and let her know she'd been hit.

Katie tumbled off the sparring circle for her third time, Maethus teleported near her landing spot, offering a hand to help her up. She took it and was pulled to her feet. _She's heavier than I remember_ he thought. She had almost given him two outs of his own.

“Food?” she said, and he agreed.

She punched in something to the food maker and out rolled a small pile of green spheres. When she set it in front of him, he laughed. “Space peas?”

She couldn't hold her budding laughter in either. “They're good for you! Where else are you going to get vitamins?”

But he wasn't eating them. He moved them around on the plate. “I...I want to go home.”

“...I'll talk to Shiro? You want me to do it now?”

“Sure.” He kept pushing around peas.

Katie found Shiro waiting on the other side of the door to the kitchen.

“Are you sure about this?” the black paladin said.

“We need a break from these constant missions. Things have been quiet.”

“We don't know when Zarkon is going to attack again.” He didn't sound entirely convinced by his own words.

“So we come back in a wormhole if he does. We stay in radio contact.”

“I'm not sending you down there alone.”

“You're not sending Keith.”

“I was actually thinking, if we wanted to make first contact, we might as well do it right. Allura is an ideal ambassador.”

“First contact?”

“Your brother...”

“Isn't exactly human anymore. I get it.” She was a bit bitter. It wasn't entirely something she had had time to deal with, especially with the prospect of seeing him every day, and seeing him like that...it still hurt, no matter what he said. Though she supposed it also made her the biggest hypocrite this side of the galaxy. “We should at least warn Garrison we're coming.”

“I'll talk to Coran about the message we want to send.” Shiro considered for a moment. “On second thought, I'll talk to Hunk. Just...get ready for this to be—“

The hallway flashed red, and the alarm klaxon screeched into life. “Paladins!” Allura's voice echoed slightly in the hallway, though it was mostly drowned out by the ringing bell. “A nearby planet is under attack by Zarkon! Get your comms in and get dressed!”

Pidge wanted to shout at her, but kept it in check. Shiro, too, looked frustrated. He said, “Let's go. We'll get back to this afterwards.”

“Is that a promise?” Katie started down the hallway as Maethus came out of the kitchen.

“It's a promise.” Shiro said.

 


End file.
